Eaton Tactical Innovations – Gunformz Pelican 1720 V14 Foam Insert

Judgement Drill

Last fall I flew to South Florida for Sage Dynamics’ Home Defense class.  Flying commercial meant buying an appropriate case to transport my firearms and accessories.  Considering that I’d have the monetary equivalent of a gently used Civic in the case, I wanted to keep everything as organized and protected as I could.  After fumbling with the usual DIY methods, I discovered the semi-custom foam inserts from Eaton Tactical Innovations.  I wrote about my experience with them here: Eaton Tactical Innovations - Pelican 1720 V3 Foam Case Insert 

Fast forward a few months, and I had signed up for another Sage Dynamics class.  This time, Defensive Rifle with Jon Dufresne.  Located at the Ross Lake Plantation in Georgia, I’d be making the trip via a 7-hour car ride.  I planned to pack my dedicated practice/training pistol, my suppressed 11.5” SBR and a 14.5” upper.  I would mainly use the SBR for night vision shooting/pig hunting and swap to the 14.5” upper for the class.  Looking at my Pelican 1720 case, I figured it had enough room for everything to fit with the right insert.  Browsing ETI’s website, I noticed a lot more foam configurations for Pelican cases, as well as Pelican Storm and more the budget friendly Plano cases.  The inserts are now known as Gunformz, and they have also expanded their lineup of inserts for the bottom foam layer, for magazines and pistols.  I found the 1720 V14.  It features a main compartment for an assembled 14.5” or longer rifle, a cutout for an 11.5” or longer suppressed upper, one pistol cutout, and various pockets for accessories.  This was nearly exactly what I needed.

 

Gunformz AR 1720 V14

I received the insert in under a week.  I removed the insert from its black plastic shipping bag, grabbed a thin bladed utility knife, and began freeing the sections of foam from their cutouts.  After a bit of trial and error, I had trimmed a few sections manually to account for my rifle rails, pressure pads, and muzzle devices.  I then  filled the remaining compartments with a spare pistol mag, pistol suppressor, sling, muzzle blast shield, and my Dbal A3.  I did however run into a small snag with the pistol cutout.  I neglected to take a close look at the position of the pistol slot.  It’s very close to the top of the insert, with no room for slide mounted optic.  This wasn’t a huge deal since I was driving, but if I was flying commercial I’d have had to pack my pistol with a checked bag.

Checking ETI’s website and found a 1720 bottom layer insert, the ARBL 1720 V2.  It holds 5 rifle mags, 5 pistol mags, and optic equipped handgun.  Unfortunately, I was leaving in a day, but placed the order knowing I’d need it in the future.

Once I had everything in its place, I had some difficulty closing the case.  The rifles are wider than the thickness of the top foam.  While I did cut pockets to clear my rifle mounted lights in the factory lid foam, having the second upper near the latches required pressing hard on the lid to close the latches.  The last thing I did before leaving was order a replacement convoluted (eggcrate) foam panel for the lid.

All day Saturday, the foam was exposed to the Georgia heat and humidity.  We were constantly brushing off the loose, sandy soil from the range mixed with sweat, sunscreen, and bug spray (OMG the gnats!).  Day two ended with heavy rain.  I was thankful for the non-moisture absorbing closed cell foam and remembering to bring a pair of beach towels.  (It always rains at Sage classes.)

 

Blasters

I returned from the class late Sunday night, and my wife (probably rolling her eyes at yet “more gun s**t”) had left the 42” long black plastic package in my office.  I noticed one change from my current bottom foam insert.  The rifle mag cutouts are precut for 30-round AR15 magazines as well as larger AR10 magazines.  Since I now run compensators on my pistols, I did have to enlarge the pistol cutout, but I had to do the same on my V3 insert.  At least with my configurations, the pistols aren’t directly under any of the wider parts of the rifles, so I don’t have to worry about the optic buttons getting pressed.

 

Gunformz ARBL 1720 V2

Once again, I’m impressed with not only the performance and durability of the inserts, but at 1/5 the cost of a custom insert, the value is excellent.  At $64.99 on Brownells, the cost is comparable to a solid replacement foam piece and a hot wire cutter without any of the hassle.  And now that these are available for inexpensive Plano cases, I’m going to pick up a lighter duty 36” Plano rifle case for general range and road trip use.

"Gun Bunny" pic